The Exact Moment Coverage Starts

Binding is the moment a carrier agrees to cover you. The effective date and time is when that coverage starts running. They are usually close together and they are not the same thing, and the gap between them is where a surprising number of uninsured hours live.

Coverage starts at a time, not on a date

Policies carry an effective time as well as an effective date. Some start at 12:01 a.m. on the effective date. Some start at the moment of binding. Which one applies to your policy is a carrier and policy-form question — so ask it directly: what time today does this start?

The reason to ask is the accident at 3 p.m. on a policy that begins at 12:01 a.m. tomorrow. That is not a technicality anyone will waive for you.

What binding requires

• An application with complete information.
• Acceptance by the carrier or by an agent with authority to bind on its behalf.
• Usually a payment — the down payment or first instalment.

Until all three have happened, you have a quote. A quote is a price, not coverage. In our office this is the single most important sentence we say to people who are about to drive off a dealer lot.

Future-dating a start

You can normally choose a start date in the near future — useful when you are switching carriers and want the new policy to begin the same day the old one ends. The important half is that the two dates touch. Same day, and if the times differ, overlapping rather than gapped.

Backdating is not a thing

Coverage cannot be made to have existed yesterday. A policy dated to begin before it was bound is not a service anyone can legitimately provide, and if someone offers it, that is the moment to walk away. If you drove uninsured last week, that is a fact about last week; what you can control is that it does not extend into next week.

Getting the timing right when you switch

1. Bind the new policy with an effective date you have chosen deliberately.
2. Confirm the effective time in writing.
3. Only then cancel the old policy, effective the same date.
4. Check the new declarations page shows the date and time you agreed.

Tell us the date you need coverage to start and we'll set it explicitly rather than by default.